Perpetual Indoor Dwc Leds

 
Okay, let's continue the departure from the weed for a moment.
 
"If I Stay" was much better than expected, especially since it's a YA sorta flick, and I was concerned it'd go all "Twilight," but was okay. I went to see Chloe Moretz playing a normal teenager for a change. She's an underrated actor, and I'm a fan, and it's always nice seeing her on screen, but especially seeing her playing to age and really nailing it. Worth seeing if you gotta go with the other half. It only dragged a bit in a couple of places, the music was tolerable, and it ended up being better than the book.
 
"Sin City - A Dame to Kill For" picks up where the last one left off more or less. I loved this one! That mix of film noir and graphic novel just works on their storyline, and is executed superbly. Eva Green bounced around showing LOTS of skin and those excellent knockers of hers. Plenty of talent in this one again, and a must see if you're into this sort of flick.
 
Peculiar coincidence was that Stacy Keach was in both films, and couldn't have been more different! He's plays Mia's grandfather in If, and a very unrecognizable, deformed, 'Dick Tracy' type of bad guy in Dame. I think he'll be the main protagonist in any sequel.
 
All in all a fun evening at the flicks. Vaped a bit of my eJuice in the DaVinci. I definitely need to increase the strength if I don't get off on it any better with the new pen vape.
 
 
Now, back to the weed!  

 

8-22-2014
 
These DWC buckets have me perplexed.
 
For example, I set ‘em all up with about ¼ - ½  strength nutes, 5.9 ph, plenty of air in the water, good light, moderate temps, etc., and the readings go all over the place. After the girls suck down a couple of gallons, the ppm goes sky fucking high, while the ph crashes alarmingly to the 5's on the Pure Africa. Not quite as extreme on the other two, but still it's usually not where I'd normally expect it to be.  I know there a bunch of science behind it all, and I'm loath to start digging in that pile of academia. In spite of all this irrational behavior, the girls all look fine. Roots are still glowing and healthy.
 
So I thought I'd try to puzzle it out. I figure the African strains probably might prefer a more alkaline bucket of juice. It doesn't seem to be taking up any nutes with the current paradigm. I start it out around 550ppm, and after it drains some, it goes to 1200-ish, so it's not feeding and definitely not vegging any longer. The Aurora Indica skews the readings too, but not as dramatically as the Africa. So this go round I upped the ph to a over 6.5 for the Africa. Not as high for the Aurora, since that one does feed, but it too skews the ph down after a bit.
 
I ended up swapping out the soup for those two, and went in with the usual light nutes and my normal extra bits, including starting the two commercial girls on a small amount of Carboload at right around 500ppm. I'll check ‘em first thing tomorrow and try and track this a couple times a day for 2-3 days to see if I can chart a trend and calculate some deviation percentages. I expect that exchanging the water in the buckets will end up being a bi-weekly thing. I suppose it's necessary if I want killer dope.
 
The hybrid is in a world of its own, and doesn't seem fussed about anything. She doesn't like getting too close to the LED panel, but 8-12" is fine. It too drags the ph down some, but not nearly as dramatically as the other two. And there's one branch working on a top cola that's going to be wood-inducing, at least for me.
 
Anyhow, I hope that I can resolve this rather simply. I really do not want to have to start testing for individual nutrient levels in the buckets and micro-managing all that. Just happy I popped only one picky Sativa.

 

 
Yeah, I sort of knew what you discussed, but it's still alarming when you see it so dramatically. I suppose DWC is easier to manage if you have a res system in use versus individual buckets. The range of deviation between plants was a cause for concern.
 
I've decided that I'd use non-ph's standing tap water to bring up low ph, since it's so high here. I'm also using a micro-biological product that converts all the unusable stuff in the water to material the plants can use, as well as contributes to roots staying healthy.
 
I did check the plants this morning after they had an opportunity to wake up. The Africa finally took in enough nutes over 18 hours with the revised ph to drop the reading 100 ppm. The Aurora did about the same. The hybrid is just sitting there growing, and took in nutes as well.
 
So I'm not quite sure why so many experts profess that hydro ph must be 5.9, since the plants don't seem to care for it one stinking bit. I believe it's partly responsible for the smallness of the Africa. I thought sativa were supposed to be taller, in spite of my topping her. I had expected the commercial beans to be a little further along by now, too. Oh well. They still look healthy and not showing much in the way of problems.
 
A little random porn:
 
 

 

 
8-24-2014
 
I followed up on the Africa after 40 hours into the ph change. Still taking up nutes gradually, and the ph hasn't yet shifted down. Curiouser and curiouser. I'm going to try leaving off the S.O.S. next time I top up and just use the ArmorSi and cal-mag with the water and see what happens.
 
I did bend a couple of branches down trying to keep the canopy even. Boy howdy, I couldn't believe there was so much dankness in just those heavy-duty stems.
 
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Thanks. Your WW/BB probably isn't going to grow the same as my F35/BB. Should be on the short side. 

 

8-25-2014
 
Went around and equalized the ph in all the buckets to about 6.3. I noticed the first signs of ph fluctuation in the hybrid in 2-3 leaves, and that prompted the adjustment.
 

 
Not sure, but in the few days that the Aurora has had carbs available, that top cola seems to be dramatically improved.
 
Eight days ago:    Today: View attachment 1541073
 
Took on the Africa this afternoon, and removed about 90% of what I'll end up clipping. It's a lot lighter now and looks scrawny as hell. I know it's necessary for some decent buddage on top. After its had some time to recover, I'll revisit the trimming. Will probably take a bit more off the Aurora tomorrow.
 

 
Some of the clippings:
 

 
 
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8-26-2014
 
Remembered to stick my head in the tents right after the lights came online today. Running the exhaust 24/7 in the 32" tent solved my little humidity issue. The big tents' fans are staying off about 9 hours, and the humidity gets to about 72% before it all kicks on in the morning and drops back to 50%, ± 3%. No visible negative effects from adjusting the ph yesterday.
 
Really cannot wait to fire up one of the skunk/cheese beans I have standing by!    <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);"> </span></span>

 

8-28-2014
 
My new vape pen dropped today, only 8 days after ordering it! Amazing! However, the case was missing. so I bitched on Ebay, and they'll likely ship it when they get the email and translate it.
 
It's on the charger atm, so I can't give a review yet. Regardless, it has to vape eJuice better than the DaVinci, which really isn't made for that type of product. I ordered the 1600 MaH battery and it's a little bigger than expected, but should last quite a while between charges. It's also infinitely variable between its voltage ranges, and I like that feature. More later.
 
Later...
 
It topped up the charge in just a few minutes, so it must have left the factory fully charged. I loaded up some of the original eJuice I made, and boy howdy, does this thing vape! I get a pretty gentle working buzz from a few tokes of the original eJuice mix I made up, and haven't bothered with any flavoring yet. I have root beer and tobacco, but may not use them, since the taste is so neutral with just the VG/PG blend. The tip type I ordered doesn't leak, and holds a good amount of juice, so all's well.
 
Only other issue so far is the button on the battery hangs a bit, and I dunno if that's because it's so new or what. There's like a 5 second cutoff or something, but still, that's burning eJuice up, and may end up giving it a bad taste. I'll have to see what happens. Even the lowest setting of 3.3v gives off more vapor than you can use.
 
Anyhow, reasonably happy with the product. I really didn't need the party-size battery, but WTF. I'll get ahold of a couple spare tips just in case, and I'll definitely mix up a batch of wicked-strong eJuice for an upcoming event where it's two tokes and you're done.

 

9-1-2014
 
After a couple of days of feeling pretty bad, I got back on the plants today. Just using standing tap water with whatever I add brings the lowered ph in the buckets back up to a normal range. Still running ph in low 6's, and ppm between 450-600.
 
One of the chores I really hate is the need to defoliate plants. Went in and removed a ton of crap off the Africa and the Aurora, but still could have taken more, but I think that's pretty much it. There were a few of the lower branches that were rotten with buds, so I hung them up to dry and to find what they taste like so far when they've dried out a bit.
 
 
Pure Africa
 
Before:
 
After:  
 
Aurora Indica
 
Before:
 
After:  Seems I forgot individual after pics...  You can see the trim in the last photo.
 
The 2x4x7 tent:  
 

 

 
I basically use the technique they show over at GrowWeedEasy. I just carboxilized about 5gr of ground weed for 10 minutes at 275. I put all that and a few g's of ABV in a short, squat jar with a loose lid with 2 oz of Veg glycerin, and placed that in a mini crock pot with water at about 190. Run 8 hours, stir occasionally, cool, repeat 2-3 times more. Watch the water level. Filtered through a 50 micron screen, and mixed 50-50 with proplyne glycol. Some over in the vape thread said it couldn't be done like that, but it works. Obviously, weed quality will alter the resulting strength of your product, and you can alter the ratio of VG/PG, depending on how much "Bite" you want in the back of your throat. My next batch will use better weed and probably closer to 1/4 oz to 2oz's of VG. I may even do the same VG twice to make a crippling batch. Some do the final mix with a bit of distilled water, but I haven't. I suppose if it's a little too viscious, a drop or two isn't going to hurt anything. Rightstuffer and his other half though it was the shit, but I think it's a tad underpowered.
 
You're going to love the LED's! <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);"> </span></span>
 
Only suggestion I can make is watch the distance from the plants initially. The first problem you'll see, if any, is leaf bleaching if you're lights are too close.
 

 

9-3-2014
 
So not a lot going on. Plants are all established and flowering. Now that they'e well along, I think I've been starving them long enough, and am fixin' to crank up the ppm to around 900 or so in a couple of stages. I've been keeping it around 500ppm± and 200 of that is built in to the city water. My normal light mix comes in at about 500ppm, so I'll notch it up. Almost worried that I've been underfeeding them, but other than those ph fluxuations I had, no other signs of issues with the food. The hybrid has big, beautiful pistil and buds coming along. The Aurora is going right along too, and the Africa is a bit slower, but I think that a sativa thing.
 
No pics.
 
 

 

9-3-2014 /2
 
I just put on a bunch of fixin's for a batch of eJuice! Still have about another fill left for my pen, and I just refiled it today. The first batch just gave a nice, low-level glow. This time around, I'm going to make someting much more potent.
 
Started out with about 8g of assorted ground up bud. Wrapped it in foil and decarbed it for 15 minutes @275 in the oven. Put it in a jar with a little over 2 oz of VG, and put the lid on loosely. It's back in the mini crock water bath (Bain Maire)  at 190F until whenever I get up and remember to get it, probably 6 hours. I'll cool it off and recycle it a couple of times, stirring occasionally, and screen it out. After testing I'll decide whether or not it needs fortifying.
 
 
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9-6-2014
 
This afternoon I replaced the water & nutes in all the buckets. Took them up to 900ppm or so. I noticed a bud growth inprovement in just the couple/three days since I raised it a bit, so I'm hoping that the new range isn't going to have any ill effects. I do know that I need to keep topping up the DWC at least every other day to avoid the ph dropping radically. It's not all that difficult to adjust on the fly.
 
So the new batch of eJuice came out exactly the same as the last batch (So far), with twice the weed. So I'm re-running it in the water bath a couple more times and see what's what.
 
I didn't appreciate that the buds were beginning to get a bit of frostiness on them. Some random bud porn. Note that 9-bladed leaf came off the Aurora Indica.
 
 

 
 
Gotta go out before it starts raining, so I don't have time to sort through them.
 

 

9-7-2014
 
Much disgust! My beloved and battered NOOK Tablet's battery is in the process of giving up the ghost after a couple of years of hard use. It took ages for me to come around to accepting the concept of an eReader, and the NOOK purchase was an impulse buy, I admit. It was okay out of the box, but after I rooted that sucker, it became a workhorse for me and is never far from my hand around the house. I use it for everything except phone calls and taking photos - No camera. Literally, I can put any of my computer screens on the tablet like I was sitting right there, and run whatever I like. I did get a Galaxy Tab 2 7" tablet last fall, but didn't like it as much as the Nook, in spite of it having cameras built in, so I sent it to my Aunt for Festivus, where it's now a paperweight.
 
What's fucked up is that my original one bricked itself, and when I took it to B&N, who exchanged it for a refurbished one. The battery was never quite the same as the new one, and I expect they didn't put a new battery in when they took it in. Anyhow, the tablet is factory supplied with a 3.7v 4000MaH battery, and new OEM replacements are impossible to locate, which blows. I tried running it all the way down several times, as well as going into the Android system and resetting the battery stats and all that jazz, with no luck - It's just worn out. Still, it's nice to know that with these and other tablets, you can DIY a battery swap without too much expense and difficulty.
 
I did find a 3.7v 3300 MaH replacement battery easily. So I ordered one of those, and hopefully the exchange process is as straightforward as it seems on YouTube.
 

 

9-12-2014
 
Here's a couple of pix of the Aurora Indica which sat with some leaves right under the LED and caught a lot of reflection off the tent wall. It's easy to see the leaf bleaching caused by just that little extra light reflecting on them. Just shows how touchy a plant can be under LED. Many LED beginners make that rookie mistake of starting way too close to the plants.
 

 
Here's a few of the hybrid. Not as frosty as I'd like to see at this point, but there's still hope, and time left - Getting dank, tho'.
 

 
Aurora Indica getting nice!
 

 
And the Pure Africa, showing a bit of color (Colour in Canada and other former Brit colonies)
 

 
One thing I've noticed is that the roots of the Africa have darkened a bit. I dunno WTF is up, but I expect that there's some staining from the nutes after a while. They smell fine and otherwise look healthy as hell, so I'm hoping it just a strain, nute, and maturity thing going on. Gotta consult a DWC expert.
 
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